The Trend to Dry Rock Cycling

blasterman

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LR is getting tougher to find and prices don't help.

I suggest if this is a problem to scape a tank tank with dry or artifical and try to budget a few chunks of healthy LR. You dont need a quarter ton of live reef to succeed. A few pieces of live stuff is all thats needed to get the natural biomass going.
 

Kershaw

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My first tank was started with live rock and every tank I have had since I just moved rock from one tank to the next. I am coming back from a break in hobby and plan to use all my old rock that sat in RO water for year then I recently let it dry out so I can do a aqua scape. I have ton of dry rock so after I scape it. I would like to seed it with about 10lbs of live rock to get the diversity.
Again never started a tank with dry rock, I don’t see the problem in curing the dry rock And then seed with a small amount of live rock. This will obviously take longer but I see it being best of both worlds.
 

fishhead1973

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I'm just getting back into this hobby after 25 years. Back then, I used live reef rock purchased at my LFS to cycle my 55 gallon tank at the time along with Carib Fiji Black sand. Getting back into the hobby and doing my homework, I noticed a large trend towards using dry rock. Being a traditionalist, I rather prefer using the living/natural way as opposed to add chemicals and such to recreate it on the dry. I was planning on purchasing live sand and live rock through Tampa Bay Saltwater but recently saw Richards post about retiring and selling. I'm still going back and forth on it to be honest between dry and live rock but leaning heavily towards the living/natural way. (call me old fashioned). The dry does have aesthetic aqua scaping appeal. Just wondering why such the big trend to dry rock as opposed to aqua cultured farm rock. Also, any recommendations of a quality vendor since TBSWR is no longer around....thanks.
Me two no hitchhikers it’s going to be some of the ugly rock for a while till it matures. I mean brown diatom for months and then green I feel like it worth the effort thought.
 

rockdiver

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I got my live rock from Gulf Live Rock and they have sand also took almost 7 days to get so not long at all full of life good and bad but imo thats what I wanted and the fun of it.
Did a 30 when I got back into it with dry rock and its everything they say dinos galore
Started a 110 and did live rock from Gulf Live Rock and slowly swapping out the fake rock
Cycles little longer not much took like literally a week but once ammonia is gone its cycled for good.
 

Johne

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I'm just getting back into this hobby after 25 years. Back then, I used live reef rock purchased at my LFS to cycle my 55 gallon tank at the time along with Carib Fiji Black sand. Getting back into the hobby and doing my homework, I noticed a large trend towards using dry rock. Being a traditionalist, I rather prefer using the living/natural way as opposed to add chemicals and such to recreate it on the dry. I was planning on purchasing live sand and live rock through Tampa Bay Saltwater but recently saw Richards post about retiring and selling. I'm still going back and forth on it to be honest between dry and live rock but leaning heavily towards the living/natural way. (call me old fashioned). The dry does have aesthetic aqua scaping appeal. Just wondering why such the big trend to dry rock as opposed to aqua cultured farm rock. Also, any recommendations of a quality vendor since TBSWR is no longer around....thanks.
Hi, I used both live and dry together. It’s been 15 years, but I got more bang for my buck with the dry, but I loved the flavor of the little critters you might get with live rock.
 

Johne

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Hi, I used both live and dry together. It’s been 15 years, but I got more bang for my buck with the dry, but I loved the flavor of the little critters you might get with live rock.
Also I used cheap black mollies for several months instead of saltwater fish. Not only did they thrive but had babies. Plus they are the easiest by far to get out. After all, all you want is their poop, lol
 

Tamberav

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I'm just getting back into this hobby after 25 years. Back then, I used live reef rock purchased at my LFS to cycle my 55 gallon tank at the time along with Carib Fiji Black sand. Getting back into the hobby and doing my homework, I noticed a large trend towards using dry rock. Being a traditionalist, I rather prefer using the living/natural way as opposed to add chemicals and such to recreate it on the dry. I was planning on purchasing live sand and live rock through Tampa Bay Saltwater but recently saw Richards post about retiring and selling. I'm still going back and forth on it to be honest between dry and live rock but leaning heavily towards the living/natural way. (call me old fashioned). The dry does have aesthetic aqua scaping appeal. Just wondering why such the big trend to dry rock as opposed to aqua cultured farm rock. Also, any recommendations of a quality vendor since TBSWR is no longer around....thanks.
KPA rock... I love it!

Gulf live rock is the other option... more hitchhikers including corals but denser rock.

Sometimes Florida pets has sand.

Dry is popular because it is cheap and available. Also people are terrified of pests for whatever reason... some people can’t even stand a bristle worm.
 

Vette67

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I'm still waiting for R2R to set up a rock swap program. I have somewhere around 100 pounds or more of live rock in my sump that I would be more than willing to trade a few pieces to new reefer for an equal amount dry rock. What I have in my sump has to be better than starting with just dry rock. It was itself dry rock (old Fiji live rock that I took out of my tank years ago), but has been sitting in my sump for about a year now. I don't have any lights on it, so there's no coralline, but it has way more bacteria / fan worms / sponges than new dry rock....
 
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schmittym7

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KPA rock... I love it!

Gulf live rock is the other option... more hitchhikers including corals but denser rock.

Sometimes Florida pets has sand.

Dry is popular because it is cheap and available. Also people are terrified of pests for whatever reason... some people can’t even stand a bristle worm.
KPA does look like nice rock from the photos. I might go with them but much higher in price than Salty Reef it seems.
 

rockdiver

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In reality it all basically the same rock from the Gulf. Just different land leases.
Gulf Live Rock was quick to respond and quick to ship and the price was great. The rock was excellent also
Rock is in tank and cycled and still never got a response from KP or Salty lol
Just my 2 cents
 
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schmittym7

schmittym7

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I don’t think you need an entire tank of live rock to get the benefits, adding a few decent chunks seems to work quite well for me and using dry rock for the rest o
In reality it all basically the same rock from the Gulf. Just different land leases.
Gulf Live Rock was quick to respond and quick to ship and the price was great. The rock was excellent also
Rock is in tank and cycled and still never got a response from KP or Salty lol
Just my 2 cents
Thanks for the suggestion and comment. When I get to that point in my build, I'll be exploring all options. I'll also check them out.
 

Tamberav

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KPA does look like nice rock from the photos. I might go with them but much higher in price than Salty Reef it seems.

I can't speak of Salty Bottom but not all live rock is the same. While they all have a good amount of life on the rock, the rock itself is different. For example, I found that Gulf Live Rock is very dense compared to KPA.
 

Tamberav

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In reality it all basically the same rock from the Gulf. Just different land leases.
Gulf Live Rock was quick to respond and quick to ship and the price was great. The rock was excellent also
Rock is in tank and cycled and still never got a response from KP or Salty lol
Just my 2 cents

I bought both Gulf Live rock and KPA rock and found them to be different. The base rock each uses is different and some of the lifeforms found on each are different.

KPA is from the Keys using Miami Oolite. It will have sponges, maybe some macro, coralline, and worms/dusters. Very porous, more representative of our dry rock if it it was sunk in the ocean for a few years.

Gulf is from the... gulf :p I don't think they say what type of rock. It is different shape/more dense. It will have all of the above plus it will have corals is the big bonus if that is of interest to people.

I have both types in my tanks.
 

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